Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, has apparently hired a cadre of left-wing, Democrat campaign bloggers to troll through the Internet looking for news stories and blog posts that denigrate the Obama agenda. After such websites are found it is the job of these secret lefty bloggers to leave comments that come to the support of Obamaism in the comments sections. It seems that Eric Holder has created his own little propaganda unit in a valiant effort to become the Bloggi Riefenstahl of the Obama era.

As reported at The Muffled Oar, a blog that first broke the story of Holder's secretive blogging unit -- dubbed the "Blog Squad" by blogger Isaac Muzzey -- Holder has housed this unit in the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice. It also appears that former John Edwards staffer Tracy Russo is part of this special unit.

A site called whorunsgov.com reported back in May that DOJ hired Russo to do "media outreach for the whole department." It is, according to whorunsgov.com, the first time such an effort has been made at DOJ.

Not only is the Department of Justice Blog Squad going to reach out to nontraditional media like TPM Muckraker or the Muffled Oar, but they are also tasked with fostering anonymous comments at conservative leaning blogs such as the Free Republic.

As we've all long suspected, this explains a lot of the ongoing troll activity here.

1. I remember a Bush administration employee (possibly in the Department of Agriculture) getting into trouble for illegally trying to generate grassroots support for some project. I forget the details, but they crossed the line by using government money to garner support for a government project.

2. Would the new FTC rules that bloggers who review products being required to disclose if they received free products or other payments from the manufacturer apply to this? Would DoJ propagandists need a footnote saying *This opinion is paid for by the federal government?

3. Would Zotting a DoJ employee be a federal crime like taking a pot shot at FBI agents hanging around your land?

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